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30/4/2001

Inventing New Britain

Victoria & Albert Museum, London

The Victorian Vision 5

The way the Victorians shaped our lives is the theme of the V&A’s major spring exhibition, Inventing New Britain: The Victorian Vision. To commemorate the centenary of Queen Victoria’s death, the exhibition will show how a modern Britain emerged during the Queen’s powerful reign (1837-1901). It will examine technology, art, society, nature and imperialism.

The exhibition will challenge perceptions of the Victorians. Paul Atterbury, curator of the exhibition, says: "The world of the Victorians relates to our world far more than most people imagine. Many of our modern-day ideas about holidays, sexuality, entertainment, sport, leisure, science and technology are Victorian in origin."

"Above all, the displays will show the Victorians as they saw themselves - powerful, creative, a confident industrial nation at the heart of the greatest empire seen in 1,000 years."

Theirs was a nation of great innovators, explorers and social reformers, such as I.K. Brunel, Florence Nightingale, David Livingstone and Charles Darwin.

The displays will provide a new perspective on the wonders of the Victorian achievement, bringing together technological inventions, paintings, sculpture, film and treasures of the empire including jewellery and African and Oriental art.

Imaginatively designed by John Outram, designer of the V&A’s successful Pugin exhibition, the Victorians exhibition will reflect the confidence and excitement of the Victorian world which was an age of adventure, expansion, discovery and progress.

The exhibition is divided into five sections: Royalty - the role of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert as leaders of taste and social change. Society - challenging views about work, children, sex and death. Nature - changing attitudes to animals and evolution through encounters with new cultures: the influence on art, design and gardening. The World - expansion, trade and empire. New Technology - the new possibilities of railways, steamships, telegraph and electricity.

A major publication, The Victorian Vision: Inventing New Britain, will accompany the exhibition, edited by Professor John Mackenzie. Two further books, Victorians at Home and Abroad by Paul Atterbury and Suzanne Fagence Cooper and The Victorian Woman by Suzanne Fagence Cooper, will also be available.

Victoria and Albert Museum
London, UK

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